IDF chief vows ‘stability here for many years to come’
(JNS.org) “Indeed, the summer here is hot. Autumn will follow and the fields will turn green. … There will be stability here for many years to come,” Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said Wednesday, referring to the return to normalcy in Israel’s south following the cease-fire that took effect Tuesday morning.
At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the IDF Homefront Command instructed citizens to return to their normal routines throughout the country. But the directive was accompanied by a warning that, “If you hear an air raid siren or the sound of an explosion, enter a protected area within the designated amount of time for your region.”
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin visited Kfar Aza, a kibbutz situated near the Gaza border, and spoke with residents who had stayed there despite the conflict.
“The things we have experienced prevent us from living normal lives,” said Orit, a community leader on the kibbutz, according to Israel Hayom.
Rivlin urged all residents of Israel’s south to return home.
“I am calling out today to all residents: Go back to your homes,” he said. “The Israel Defense Forces are here, protecting you with their lives. In the future we will see just how important Operation Protective Edge was.”
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Hamas threatens to continue rocket attacks on Israel when cease-fire expires
(JNS.org) Hamas threatened to resume rocket attacks on Israel when a 72-hour cease-fire expires on Friday morning.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called Hamas’s threat “extortion,” and Finance Minister Yair Lapid warned Hamas not to test Israel.
“The IDF is ready and waiting,” Lapid told reporters on Thursday, according to Reuters. “The air force is ready and waiting. We will respond to fire with a massive blow. To me, there is no difference between Hamas’s political leadership and their military leadership. Anyone at the helm of a terrorist organization is as good as dead, and we will get to them.”
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Israeli U.N. envoy says international community ‘has lost its way’
(JNS.org) Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Ron Prosor on Wednesday said the international community “has lost its way” in its assessment of the latest Israel-Hamas conflict.
“It might be too much to ask you to stand on our side in this battle between civilization and barbarism, but at least have the decency to swallow your selective outrage while Israel wages war against the extremist groups seeking to eradicate the values that we all hold very dear,” Prosor told the U.N. General Assembly.
“If the U.N. assembly had invested a tenth of the energy invested in investigating Israel, it would reveal horrific war crimes on the part of Hamas,” he added. “The international community has lost its way. This organization was founded to promote morality, truth, and justice. Unfortunately, that is not its mission now.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon leveled heavy criticism on Israel, telling the General Assembly on Wednesday, “Perhaps nothing symbolized more the horror that was unleashed on the people of Gaza than the repeated shelling of U.N. facilities harboring civilians who had been explicitly told to seek a safe haven there.”
“Mere suspicion of militant activity does not justify jeopardizing the lives and safety of many thousands of innocent civilians,” Ban said. “U.N. shelters must be safe zones, not combat zones. Those who violate this sacred trust must be subject to accountability and justice.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel’s military actions in Gaza were “defensive, justified, and proportional.”
“We did everything possible to avoid harming civilians,” he said. “Hamas did the exact opposite, both in terms of our civilians and in terms of civilians in Gaza.”
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Ethics expert: IDF fulfilled all ethical requirements in Gaza
(JNS.org) The Israel Defense Forces carried out Operation Protective Edge in compliance with ethical requirements, according to Israel Prize laureate Professor Asa Kasher, who helped formulate the military’s Code of Ethics.
“We are fulfilling the ethical requirements,” he said, according to Israel Hayom. “Every battalion commander has an officer in charge of locating civilians, and everything is overseen by too many lawyers, who help direct the operation on the ground. The number of casualties is irrelevant—it does not speak of omissions or any wrongdoing on the part of the IDF.”
Kasher said Israel’s operation is facing a torrent of aggressive criticism because “there are people whose perspective is very shallow.”
“[Critics] are shown photographs of a destroyed house and a doll’s severed leg, photographs that are sometimes even from Syria, and they cry out,” he said. “They do not understand anything and they feel the need to express a shallow sort of good-heartedness that has them momentarily identifying with the underdog.”
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Israeli Supreme Court says Ehud Olmert acquittal must be revisited
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert’s partial acquittal in his first corruption trial may be overturned as a result of a Supreme Court decision from Wednesday that paves the way for a retrial.
In 2008, prosecutors came across information that Olmert, as Jerusalem mayor in the 1990s and as a cabinet minister in the early 2000s, had accepted undeclared funds from American businessman Morris Talansky. The revelations contributed to Olmert’s decision to leave office as prime minister several months later, ahead of an all but certain indictment.
In 2012, the Jerusalem District Court said that despite the problematic transactions, the state failed to prove that the former premier had committed breach of trust and fraud by accepting money from Talansky. Shortly after the not-guilty verdict, the state filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, and on Wednesday an expanded Supreme Court panel remanded the case back to the lower court in light of potentially new evidence the state had obtained from Olmert’s former bureau chief Shula Zaken.
The state struck a deal with Zaken, who agreed to provide previously confidential records pertaining to Olmert’s conduct. The documents were inadmissible during the trial because she was a codefendant and refused to take the stand. As a result of Wednesday’s decision, the state will be allowed to name Zaken as a witness and have her testify before the Jerusalem District Court against Olmert.
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